Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Disable focus in the address bar for new tabs

  • 5 cavab
  • 3 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by radiocam

more options

Hello, I personally dislike the new address bar (also known as Megabar), mainly because it is enlarged without any user intervention, even if I only want to open a bookmark without typing anything in there.

Is there a setting in about:config to disable focus in the address bar for new tabs? Thanks.

Hello, I personally dislike the new address bar (also known as Megabar), mainly because it is enlarged without any user intervention, even if I only want to open a bookmark without typing anything in there. Is there a setting in about:config to disable focus in the address bar for new tabs? Thanks.

Modified by Underpass

All Replies (5)

more options

Hello Underpass,

I don't know what they were thinking implementing this "new feature", but (for now, as this seems to be only a temporary fix) would you do this please :

Type in the address bar about"config and press Enter. (ignore the warning)

Type in the search bar and look for the preference :

browser.urlbar.openViewOnFocus

and set its value to false

Do the same with these preferences :

browser.urlbar.update1

browser.urlbar.update1.interventions

browser.urlbar.update1.searchTips

Then close and restart Firefox.

(if it's only the Top Sites suggestions that you want to get rid of : setting the value of first preference to "false" will do that)

more options

Sorry, I know this way but I don't want to disable this feature altogether: I only want to disable the focus when opening new tabs.

more options

Sorry, my bad .....

I've been searching to find a way to disable focus on the address bar when opening a new tab, to no avail .....

There used to be a preference on the "about:config" page that you could toggle, but not anymore  :(

I'm hoping that someone else will come up with the perfect solution.

more options

Your question kept me thinking and trying to find a way to disable the focus from the address bar .....

Couldn't find anything online, no matter where or how I searched.

You could bookmark all Top Sites on the new tab page and then use this add-on :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/

Or you could just do what I have been doing so far :

Ignore the fact that the focus is on the address bar and just click on the tile that I want to use (or enter a URL in the address bar).


But again : maybe someone else will come up with the perfect solution to disable the focus on the address bar .....

more options

I do hope someone does fix/change this. One reason the URL-bar focus drives me crazy is that it does not highlight/replace the home page address that is in there already, but puts the cursor in front of it. So if I do try to use the address bar I have to first delete the address already in there. So much that I've been starting to gaze more benignly at Edge. That's scary!

Hate it when UI designers lose their grip on reality...